3.2 Growth performance
The growth in innovation performance has been calculated for each country and for the EU27 as a block using data over a five-year period [1]. This calculation is based on absolute changes in the indicators. All countries show an absolute improvement in the innovation performance over the period. Romania has experienced the fastest growth in performance.
Within the four identified country groups growth performance is very different and Table 2 identifies the growth leaders within each group. Within the Innovation leaders, Switzerland is the growth leader but also Finland and Germany show a growth performance clearly above that of the EU27. Cyprus and Estonia are the growth leaders of the Innovation followers, followed by Iceland and Slovenia. Of the Moderate innovators eight countries have grown faster than the EU27, but three countries have shown a slower progress: Italy, Norway and Spain. The growth leaders here are Czech Republic, Greece, Malta and Portugal. All Catching-up countries have grown at a faster pace than the EU27. Bulgaria and Romania are the growth leaders also showing the overall fastest rate of improvement in innovation performance.
The average growth rates for the four country groups (Table 2) show that there is between group convergence with the Innovation followers growing at a faster rate than the Innovation leaders, the Moderate innovators growing faster than the Innovation followers and the Catching-up countries growing at a faster rate than the Moderate innovators. The overall process of catching up, where countries with below average performance have faster growth rates than those with above average performance, can also be observed at the level of most individual countries.
Table 2: Innovation growth leaders
Group |
Growth rate |
Growth leaders |
Moderate growers |
Slow growers |
Innovation leaders |
1.5% |
Switzerland (CH) |
Finland (FI), Germany (DE) |
Denmark (DK), Sweden (SE), United Kingdom (UK) |
Innovation followers |
2.7% |
Cyprus (CY), Estonia (EE) |
Iceland (IS), Slovenia (SI) |
Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), France (FR), Ireland (IE), Luxembourg (LU), Netherlands (NL) |
Moderate innovators |
3.3% |
Czech Republic (CZ), Greece (GR), Malta (MT), Portugal (PT) |
Hungary (HU), Lithuania (LT), Poland (PL), Slovakia (SK) |
Italy (IT), Norway (NO), Spain (ES) |
Catching-up countries |
5.5% |
Bulgaria (BG), Romania (RO) |
Latvia (LV), Turkey (TR) |
Croatia (HR) |
Average annual growth rates as calculated over a five-year period.
Figure 4: Country groups: Innovation performance per dimension  |
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